BATON ROUGE -- A state court judge has ruled that a man who commutes between Jefferson Parish and Georgia cannot run for sheriff of Jefferson Parish, but his attorney late Monday filed notice that he will appeal.

After a day-long hearing Friday, 19th Judicial District Court Judge Wilson Fields ruled that George Poplus did not have proper legal standing to challenge a section of the law that requires him to gather the names of 400 registered voters up to six months in advance of qualifying instead of having to pay a qualifying fee to run for office.

John Litchfield, an attorney for Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer, said that Fields' ruling did not address the constitutionality of the statute, because Poplus was not the properly qualified person to bring the lawsuit.

Poplus' attorney Ron Landry, a former state senator, said he will ask the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal to review Fields' ruling. Because the case is related to an election scheduled for Nov. 17, he expects the Baton Rouge appeals court to hear the case quickly, possibly in the next few days.

"It is an election case and they will expedite it,'' Landry said. The appeal itself will be lodged when Fields signs the judgment dismissing Poplus' lawsuit.

Testimony and evidence at the hearing indicated that Poplus lives for stretches of time at his mother's home in Jefferson Parish. Kim Raines Chatelain, another attorney for Gegenheimer, said that testimony also showed that Poplus at one time had a homestead exemption in Georgia, indicating a domicile there, and that he has a driver's license from that state, has his car registered there and works and votes there.

To run for sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Chatelain said, state law requires a candidate to be a resident of the state for two years and of the parish for at least one year.

The election for a new Jefferson Parish sheriff, originally set for Oct. 20, was pushed back to Nov. 17 when incumbent Harry Lee died. Lee qualified for another term in September and died Oct. 1.

State law says when a candidate dies after qualifying closes and before the end of voting on election day, election officials must cancel the election, reopen qualifying for a three-day period after the death of a candidate and reschedule the election.

If no candidate gets a majority in the Nov. 17 primary, a runoff will be held Dec. 15.

The four candidates still in the race are Melvin "Teddy" Burns of Marrero, who is not affiliated with a political party; Harvey contractor Julio Castillo, a Republican; Harahan Police Chief Peter Dale, a Republican; and acting Sheriff Newell Normand, a Metairie Republican who was Lee's chief deputy.

Poplus, who wanted to qualify by getting at least 400 registered voters to sign a petition instead of paying the qualifying fee, filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the law that requires the reopening of qualifying for just three days. Landry said that makes it virtually impossible for a candidate to qualify by petition.

State law requires anyone who wants to file for office by petition to have the signatures gathered at least 120 days before the opening of qualifying. Poplus said that part of the law was unconstitutional but Fields never got to rule on the request, Litchfield said, because the judge granted Gegenheiemer's contention that Poplus did not have the legal authority to bring the lawsuit.

"He (Fields) determined that Poplus was not domiciled in Louisiana for two years," Chatelain said.

She said there was evidence that Poplus has voted in both states in the past five years.

Besides the clerk of court, the offices of the state attorney general and secretary of state were also named as defendants in the litigation.

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or (225) 342-5810.